


Whistling Hill

by Sacrulen



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 16:16:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17563829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sacrulen/pseuds/Sacrulen
Summary: The remnants of who he was rest in the blades of grass and the rays of the sun, and they jump out when Link least expects it.





	Whistling Hill

When he finally drifted down from the plateau and found firm land underneath his feet, Link pulled directions for where he should go from a traveller on a bridge. The man looked at him with hesitation gathering in the space between his furrowing brows, a cautious hand on his sword and a question unfurling its way from his lips.

"You've never been 'round these parts?"

No, was the answer, and there was nothing more than a quick thank you for the directions, which themselves were just a point towards the tiny split in the mountain before them and a brusk explanation of what he'll find on the other side.

Link marched onwards, past the ruins of a building he might once have known, past the newly sprouted tower, and through the chasm he was pointed towards. The river that kept to his left babbled with such a clean water that he couldn't help but dip his hands in and bring it to his face. It was cold, though not as cold as the water he'd fallen in on the plateau, and he thanked Hylia that he had a warm doublet now and that it was more temperate down here. The chasm might have funelled a wind that battered his face, but it was a pleasant one. It ran through his hair and tangled it into a mess of knots and cowlicks, it ran through his fingers and made the knuckles red, it swept up dust from the well-travelled path and tried its best to fling it into the squints of his eyes. It reminded him that he was walking, going somewhere though he did not know where, and awake.

What he had intended to do when he emerged from the mountain path was to ask for more directions and continue his walk. But there was an odd familiarity in the stables that settled a churn in his stomach that he did not even realise was there. The smell of the horses wasn't exactly pleasing; it was a mix of straw and manure that was undeniably animal. Yet, as he stood near their feeding trough he took a deep breath in and let the scent swirl down into his lungs and tug at the back of his mind. It crawled behind his eyes and jumped up and down. _You know this!_ It yelled and shouted and stomped and rattled, but it managed to conjure no visions of the past life he knew was there.

"You like this one?" The girl tending to the horses spoke, stretching her vowels ever so slightly in a way that surprised Link. "She's beautiful, aint she?"

Link gave a small nod. He hadn't realised he was staring so intently at the horse, or the girl. She cocked her head in the silence, smiling a little. "She used to belong to a merchant who walked up and down these roads, big round trip from Hateno to Whistling Hill, then up the slope to Kakairiko. What was his name..." She tapped at her chin as she thought. 

Hateno, Whistling Hill, in another life he might have recognised those words, and might have pictured the journey from here and around, what sights he might see and what the merchant might sell. What did Kakairiko even look like, he wondered. Did it fare better than the ruins he had passed? Was there only one person remaining in a hollowed out house, waiting for a hero named Link?

"Pa!" The girl's call broke him from his train of thought, and she waved an arm up at a man who stood almost at guard at the door to the stable. "Pa, what was the name of that man that Dandelion belonged to? That merchant who always sold us all those carrots."

"She was a woman!" He called back, and began to walk over, strong hands holding firm onto his hips. His age was apparent in his skin and his slow, wobbly gait. "She was called Batty. Liked to try and make that round trip to the stables by Whistling Hill once a day for fun, and worked that poor horse almost to death while doing it. I think Dandelion's the only one who's happy she retired!"

"Then who am I thinking of? She ever ride with a man?"

Link allowed the two of them to talk about whoever it was that rode through on a black horse and sold carrots in whatever settlement happened to sit by Whistling Hill. The horse, too, ignored them. She dipped her head peacefully into her meal and happily swayed her tail to and fro with the wind. She brayed slightly as she brought her head up, a quick hoof of air through her nostrils and a shake of her head, and if only for a second she looked at him with her big black eyes.

Link caught himself with his hand a fist infront of his mouth, and suddenly he froze. It was such a familiar pose that he hadn't even noticed his fingers curl so easily over his mouth. He knew something must come next, that something was supposed to happen now that his hands were here. He waited for a second or two, dumbfounded on the spot and trying so hard to grasp at the thread of a memory that had placed his hands infront of his face... but nothing came. He cursed himself quietly for interrupting whatever he was trying to do. His hands felt stiff when he forced them at his side again, and his mind murky as ever.

"How much for a bed for the night?" The sound of his voice quietened the conversation between father and daughter, and Link clenched his fist, shifting his weight in his boots in the silence. The sound he made when he spoke was still held a strangeness to it. It was foreign, and so different from the long drawn out vowels that the people here spoke with. The edges of his words were soft, his voice slightly high pitched and wholly unfamiliar. It was as though someone else was speaking his thoughts for him, the voice of a body he had only borrowed.

The old man infront of him had that same furrow in his brow as the man on the bridge he had asked directions from before. "20 for the night, double that and we'll give you a good hot meal and a softer throw. Where abouts you from, son?"

With one hand, Link shuffled around in his pocket and brought out the bundle of rupees he'd collected so far. With the other, he pointed towards the direction he'd came, and left it at that.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be longer but it never got finished (too distracted playing botw). It's been in an open word document on my computer since November so may as well post it as it is!


End file.
